Israel's cabinet agrees to continue ban on Palestinian workers

Palestinians from the West Bank will not be allowed back into Israel to work after the Security Cabinet voted against it on Sunday night following a recommendation from the Socio-Economic Cabinet.

Israel halted the entry of Palestinian workers following Hamas’s massacre on October 7 for security reasons, especially following reports that Gazan workers supplied the terrorist group with key information for its attack.

Due to the lack of Palestinian workers, Israel is facing a significant shortage in manpower in industries that have previously been staffed mostly by Palestinian and foreign workers who have mostly gone home as a result of the war.

In the last week, while some officials in the security system recommended allowing some Palestinian workers back into Israel, many coalition members opposed it.

“A country that values life doesn’t allow entry to citizens of the enemy during a war,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who chairs the Socio-Economic Cabinet. “It’s true about Gaza, and it’s true about the West Bank.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir added that the police agree with this stance.

"The Palestinian Authority is the enemy"

“We have to keep changing the conception,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority is the enemy, and you don’t let citizens of the enemy into your house even if some of them want to work.”

Most of the ministers urged a continued ban, but Interior Minister Moshe Arbel and Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Zur (both from Shas) were absent from the vote, and Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf voted against it.

The decision means that Israel will have to reach agreements with other countries, like India, to bring foreign workers back to the country, and that Palestinians who used to rely on their work in Israel will now be unemployed.